Thousands of parents are guilty of school places “theft”, the head of the
admissions watchdog said, as he suggested court action for those who lie to
get their children into the best schools.

Ian Craig, the Chief Schools Adjudicator, said tougher sanctions were needed to deter mothers and fathers who lied on application forms to secure places at the best state schools.

He said that the “dishonest few” currently had nothing to lose by cheating.

It comes as he published research which suggested as many as 3,500 parents lied their children's way into sought-after schools last year.

In a report, Dr Craig said many parents were employing “quite bizarre” tactics to cheat the system.

Using grandparents’ addresses on admissions forms was the most common method followed by parents who rented homes near the school gates during the application process. Some married couples even pretended to separate, with one moving into a good school’s catchment area.

Friends and neighbours often colluded to “play the system”, Dr Craig said, and in one case multiple false applications were traced back to parents at the same pre-school.

His report, which was ordered by Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, said that "additional sanctions" were needed, "probably through the courts".

Around four-in-10 local councils surveyed by the watchdog also suggested that “prosecution should be available as a sanction, either for fraud, perjury, or as a specific criminal offence”.

Speaking at the launch of the report in central London on Monday, Dr Craig appeared to suggest that criminal proceedings would be difficult to administer and civil action would be a more likely route, although he insisted "all the options" should be investigated.

Mr Balls has now ordered the adjudicator to draw up detailed recommendations for sanctions which will be published in February.

Dr Craig said: “If the majority of parents are honest and a dishonest few are depriving the honest majority of their rightful places it is a form of theft and surely we ought to be saying everywhere we can that this is not right.”

The report was commissioned following the case of a mother who was prosecuted in Harrow, north London, for allegedly lying to get her child into a top primary school. Mrinal Patel was charged under the Fraud Act but the local authority eventually dropped the case citing expensive legal costs.

In his report, Dr Craig surveyed 123 out of 150 local authorities. They said 1,100 parents were found to have made fraudulent applications last year.

But he estimated that the total number of parents lying on forms – including those who did not get caught – was around 3,500.

This is still only a very small proportion of the total number of school applications made each year, he added.

But the study said: “[Local authorities] report that deceptive applications have become more commonplace as many parents do not consider the consequences of their actions for others any longer, and friends and neighbours, as well as family members, collude with one another to ‘play the system’.”

Mr Balls said: "I understand that some local authorities have suggested that criminal or civil penalties could be used to sanction parents that undertake deceptive behaviour.

"I have always been clear that it has not been and is not our intention that parents should be criminalised. But I recognise that is a serious issue, and accept your conclusion that we need to look at further sanctions.

"I would therefore like you to provide me with recommendations on how the problem should be addressed, including proposals on how to strengthen the deterrents, bearing in mind the need for any sanctions to be legitimate and proportionate."

Civil courts can impose fines and community sentences, including unpaid work. It is believed the Government will also consider parenting orders, which force mothers and fathers to attend special parenting classes.

But Nick Gibb, the shadow schools minister, said: “Of course we cannot condone parents making fraudulent claims about their situations in order to get their children into a particular school. But the Government is dealing with the symptoms rather than the causes of mass parental dissatisfaction.

"At the moment there are hundreds of thousands of parents not getting their choice of school. We need to allow new providers into the system so more parents have the kinds of schools they want, with strong discipline and smaller class sizes, on their doorstep.”

In a further development, Dr Craig said only 37 per cent of local councils and 11 per cent of schools were totally complying with new rules introduced to make the admissions process fairer.

Breaches included failing to properly map out catchment areas and the use of unclear tiebreakers when two children are vying for the same place.

Some schools were also unclear that parents of infants were free to enrol children at school at the age of five, rather than four.

He said schools and local councils had an obligation to "make it clear to parents that they have a right" to defer entry until the term after their fifth birthday.

It comes just weeks after Mr Balls suggested that it was best for all children to start in the September after their fourth birthday.

Dr Craig also published the findings of other inquiries ordered by Mr Balls, one into school admissions of twins and the other into school lotteries.

The first came following concerns that some twins were being offered two different schools because their applications are treated separately by local authorities.

Dr Craig's inquiry concluded that twins and other children from multiple births should be included in the list of "excepted pupils" under rules governing class sizes so they can go to the same school.

Keith Reed, chief executive of the Twins and Multiple Births Association, said: "The Chief School Adjudicator's report confirms what we have been telling officials for years. The school admissions system in England is causing harm to a number of multiple birth children by splitting them across different schools against their will.

"Parents of multiples, Local Education Authorities and now the adjudicator all agree that the Secretary of State should act and the adjudicator's recommendation to make multiples an exception to the class size regulations would resolve the problem at a stroke.

"Ignoring these recommendations would be an act of cruelty towards those multiple birth children and their families who are let down by the current rules every year."

Do you know anyone who has lied to get their child into a popular school? Please leave your comments below...